0% Long-term Capital Gains Tax? Is this Legit?

Let's say i follow the WSO guide to success and by age 40 I retire with a $10M stock portfolio. Assuming all stocks have been held for over a year and I am no longer earning an income at age 41, if I exit all my positions, does this mean I get to keep all $10M to myself??? Seems like theres a 0% long-term capital gains tax if you make under $77k? Is this true? So for people like Mark Zuckerberg who earns $1 in cash salary a year, he doesn''t need to pay anything on his stock holdings?

7 Comments
 
I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.
 

Long Term Capial Gains are taxed at a rate based on your current income rate. Long Term Capital Gains are still income.. Unless you keep your capital gains for the year to under the taxible maximum to qualify for 0% and you have no other income, you'll have to pay tax on the money.

 

I thought OP's question was stupid but long-term capital gains tax rate is 0% for under 80k for married couples. Once you hit 60 and retire, you could sell 80k a year and not pay capital gains taxes right?

 

Well, it depends really... There's a lot of factors that go into it, the type of account you're withdrawing from, etc. Plus, there's the real question of where are you living on 80K a year and the lifestyle that entails if you're retired.

 

Well, you could have another source as well but 80k of spending post-taxes isn't half bad IMO in retirement with the kids moved out and assuming you already fully own your house.

 

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